385. College Access and Success News

Here are links to recent news on college access and success.
by
Joe Rottenborn

Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

1. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ today's top stories on college access and success via @rottenbornj ▸ http://paper.li/rottenbornj

2. Shooting at Va. Tech reopens wounds from 2007, by Greg Toppo – http://usat.ly/vPct47 via USATODAY - "Tragedy has again struck Virginia Tech," school President Charles Steger said. "Our hearts are broken again."

3. Field Notes From This Year's Application Season, by Rebecca R. Ruiz: http://nyti.ms/rDfRTX - "While our survey was unscientific, it brought into focus some themes, including increased applicant interest in public colleges – both in and out of state – and an apparent rise in the number of students who have been filing applications early this year, sometimes at the prodding of the colleges themselves."

4. Essay calls for sustained effort by colleges to focus on economic inequality, by Gloria Nemerowicz Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/sCDUIe - "Copious data, like Mortenson’s cited above, indicate that a caste-like education system exists in America. The economic group you are born into is the best predictor of your access to and completion of a college degree. This should be unacceptable to a democracy. It should be unacceptable to higher education. How can we feel good about being part of an enterprise in human development that solidly succeeds only with wealthy people?"

5. Left Behind: Unequal Opportunity in Higher Education, by Richard D. Kahlenberg - http://tcf.org/media-center/pdfs/pr19/leftbehindrc.pdf - "Low-income students are ill served in America’s higher education system in almost every respect: general enrollment rates, general graduation rates, and enrollment and graduation from elite colleges."

6. High School Test Terrain Shifting From Exit Exams to College-Readiness, by Catherine Gewertz - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2011/12/high_school_testing_increasing.html via @educationweek - "Fewer students are being required to pass exit exams to graduate from high school, but high school testing is increasing because more states are requiring college- and career-readiness tests, according to a study released today."

7. National Student Clearinghouse Persistence Measures Include Transfers, by Beckie Supiano -http://chronicle.com/article/National-Student-Clearinghouse/130046/ - "Persistence varies by sector, the report says. Private, nonprofit four-year colleges had the highest rate, 91.4 percent, while public two-year colleges had the lowest rate, 74.9 percent."

8. Ravitch: ‘Miracle schools’ not so miraculous after all - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/ravitch-miracle-schools-not-so-miraculous-after-all/2011/12/07/gIQAP565fO_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_tw - "I have said it before, and I'll say it again: There are no silver bullets in education. There are no magic feathers that enable elephants like Dumbo to fly. It's hard work to improve schools. It takes dedication, resources, and time. And the work is never done, the magic number of 100 percent is always out of reach."

378. College Access and Success News

Here are links to recent news on college access and success.

by

Joe Rottenborn
Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

1. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily ▸ today's top stories on college access and success via @rottenbornj ▸ http://paper.li/rottenbornj

2. Duncan Calls for Urgency in Lowering College Costs, by Tamar Lewin: http://nyti.ms/thZSu2 - “Three in four Americans now say that college is too expensive for most people to afford,” Mr. Duncan said. “That belief is even stronger among young adults — three-fourths of whom believe that graduates today have more debt than they can manage.” College seniors with loans now graduate with an average debt load of more than $25,000."

3. Committee on Measures of Student Success issues final report, by Libby A. Nelson Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/sOdSKW via AddThis -"One of the recommendations, if endorsed by Education Secretary Arne Duncan, would create a combined “graduation and transfer” rate that includes students who graduate from a two-year college as well as those who do not graduate but do go on to a four-year institution. That move would be a victory for community colleges, who have argued that counting only those students who earn degrees makes community colleges appear less successful than they really are."

4. 10 job market trends college grads need to know, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57332329/10-job-market-trends-college-grads-need-to-know/?tag=mncol;lst;8 - "Hiring of college graduates is expected to increase 4 percent across all degree levels, according to a survey of more than 3,300 employers. The survey, which is the largest of its kind, has been conducted annually for 41 years by Michigan State University. . . . Hiring will be strong for college majors such as computer science, accounting, agriculture sciences and agriculture business. Other in-demand degrees will include communications, public relations, marketing, finance and economics."

5. Experts Say Social Sciences Are 'Left Behind,' by Sarah D. Sparks - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/11/30/13social.h31.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW via @educationweek - "Researchers at an NRC forum on social sciences in Washington this month suggested that the expansion of testing in math and reading under the No Child Left Behind Act has led to a piecemeal approach to social and behavioral science subjects in the states. . . . “No Child Left Behind frankly left us behind, and the common core gave us a footnote,” said S.G. Grant, the education dean at Binghamton University in Binghamton, N.Y. The discussion caps a year of dismal news on the social studies front for U.S. students: National Assessment of Educational Progress reports out this year found mostly mediocre performance for students in geography, civics, and history."

6. Learning the Language: New Study on Hispanic Achievement Paints Stark Picture, by Lesli Maxwell - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2011/11/new_study_on_hispanic_achievem.html via @educationweek - "When it comes to "readiness to learn," Hispanic children face several disadvantages compared with their white peers. Thirty-three percent of Hispanic children in 2008 lived in families where no parent had full-time employment compared with 21 percent of white children. And in 2007, 27 percent of Hispanic children lived in poverty compared with 10 percent of white children. Those factors and others translate to Hispanic children being less likely than their white or black peers to recognize letters of the alphabet, knowing how to write their name, or being able to count to 20 or higher."

7. THE SOCIAL & EDUCATIONAL FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE OUTCOMES OF HISPANICS IN URBAN SCHOOLS- http://www.cgcs.org/cms/lib/DC00001581/Centricity/Domain/4/HispanicStudy2011.pdf -"Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) analyzed for this report show that Hispanic fourth graders read and do math at substantially lower levels than students with greater advantages and students who speak English. The situation is compounded by the fact that large numbers of Hispanic students live below the poverty line, do not have health insurance nor access to pre-school services, are unlikely to have a parent who has graduated from high school, are among the working poor, and face constant suspicions about whether they are in the country legally."

8. Surge in Free School Lunches Reflects Economic Crisis, by Sam Dillon: http://nyti.ms/tmx5jh - "The number of students receiving subsidized lunches rose to 21 million last school year from 18 million in 2006-7, a 17 percent increase, according to an analysis by The New York Times of data from the Department of Agriculture, which administers the meals program."

9. ‘Broader, bolder’ strategy to ending poverty’s influence on education, by Pedro Noguera - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/broader-bolder-strategy-to-ending-povertys-influence-on-education/2011/11/29/gIQAtTvaAO_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via Washingtonpost.com - "Over 50 years, numerous studies have documented how poverty and related social conditions — such as lack of access to health care, early childhood education and stable housing — affect child development and student achievement. The research never suggests that poor children are incapable of learning or that poverty itself should be regarded as a learning disability. Rather, research suggests that poor children encounter obstacles that often adversely affect their development and learning outcomes."

10. Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer’s salary: $4 million, by Jenna Johnson - Campus Overload - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/campus-overload/post/ohio-state-football-coach-urban-meyers-salary-4-million/2011/11/29/gIQAup9K9N_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via @washingtonpost.com - "Meyer will earn three times more than Ohio State President E. Gordan Gee, the nation’s highest paid university president. On most campuses, coaches top the payroll. And despite the economy, budget cuts and increasing tuition, coach salaries continue to climb."

11. Kevin Carey: The Dissenter The New Republic: http://bit.ly/tyVhGG via AddThis" -"Improbably, at the end of a four-decade-long career as the nation’s most prominent education historian and a vocal advocate for education reform, Ravitch has emerged as reform’s fiercest critic. Her about-face has made her more famous and influential than she has ever been. Now, pundits, scholars, philanthropists, and education leaders are all asking the same question: What happened to Diane Ravitch?"

348. College Access and Success News

Here are links to recent news on college access and success.
by
Joe Rottenborn
Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

1. Student loan debt hits record levels, by Dennis Cauchon – http://usat.ly/neJ8xx via USATODAY - "The amount of student loans taken out last year crossed the $100 billion mark for the first time and total loans outstanding will exceed $1 trillion for the first time this year. Americans now owe more on student loans than on credit cards, reports the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Students are borrowing twice what they did a decade ago after adjusting for inflation, the College Board reports. Total outstanding debt has doubled in the past five years — a sharp contrast to consumers reducing what's owed on home loans and credit cards."

2. For-profit colleges focus of student loan issue, by Dennis Cauchon – http://usat.ly/nz5mEp via @USATODAY - "The federal government has promoted and subsidized loans as a way to help young people and workers get the education needed to succeed in a troubled economy. The government made or guaranteed more than 80% of the $1 trillion in loans outstanding and backed more than 90% of new loans this year. For-profit schools such as the University of Phoenix, DeVry University and hundreds of smaller institutions have been particularly successful in winning students and their federal aid by offering courses that focus on specific careers, often taught online and aimed at older, non-traditional students."

3. How to avoid defaulting on your student loans, by Sandra Block – http://usat.ly/oBR9h8 via @USATODAY - "While defaulting on any loan will trigger a lot of unpleasant consequences, defaulting on your federal student loan debt could be disastrous. Your wages may be garnished and your tax refunds withheld. Your credit score will be ruined, which will make it more difficult to borrow for a house or a car."

4. The Rapid Rise of Merit Aid, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed - http://bit.ly/nV3X6m via @AddThis - "Many institutions – particularly those that are moderately selective – have embraced merit-based financial aid out of the belief that offering partial scholarships will help them attract paying students away from higher-profile peers. Numerous states, especially in the South, have put in place hefty aid programs based on academic merit to try to keep academically qualified students within the state’s borders for college. But many student aid experts roundly pan the approach for abandoning the historical goal of using financial assistance to draw into higher education those who would have been unlikely to attend otherwise."

5. It's Not Me. It's You. by Kevin Kiley - Inside Higher Ed - http://bit.ly/pBbRh1 via AddThis - "Since the economic recession began in 2008, state revenues have not kept pace with state funding obligations, resulting in budget shortfalls in most states and cuts to most state services. When states cut appropriations to higher education institutions in the past, colleges and universities made up the difference through tuition hikes and belt-tightening. Both lawmakers and university leaders kept quiet, knowing that appropriations would return and that large tuition increases would likely be followed by smaller hikes."

6. Tuition assistance slashed by 75 percent for Marines, by Travis J. Tritten - Marine Corps - Stripes: http://1.usa.gov/n9E4nC via @AddThis - "The Marine Corps announced Tuesday it has slashed tuition assistance by 75 percent for servicemembers who take classes on their off-duty time. The change went into effect immediately and reduces the maximum education assistance available from the Department of Defense standard of $3,500 per year to just $875 per year for Marines — about enough to cover two university courses, according to a service-wide bulletin.The Marine Corps said the new rate is equal to the average class load taken on by Marines who use the tuition assistance program and is a more focused use of the service’s tuition funds."

7. 8 Ways to Search for Great Colleges, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/blog/college-solution/8-ways-to-search-for-great-colleges/6949/ via @cbsmoneywatch - "1. Decide whether you want to attend a college or a university. Choosing between the two main types of schools will significantly narrow your search. Here are posts that can help you understand the difference between these institutions:"

8. Questions Raised About 'High-Flyers' Study, by Nirvi Shah - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/speced/2011/10/are_high-achieving_students_be.html via @educationweek - "In this massive study of tens of thousands students, children who performed in the bottom third in reading or math in grade 3 had less than a 1 percent chance of being high achievers by grade 8. Even average students in grade 3, (between 40 and 60 percentile) had less than a 5 percent chance of becoming high achievers later," they wrote recently on their blog. A high achiever in grade 3 math was 17 times more likely to be a high achiever in grade 8 than your average grade 3 student, and 142 times more likely than someone who was performing in the bottom third of students in grade 3. The results were broadly similar for reading."

9. States, Districts Move to Require Virtual Classes, by Michelle R. Davis - http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2011/10/19/01required.h05.html via @educationweek - "The goal is to make sure students get an online-learning experience in a low-risk, supportive environment, Airhart says. “The reality is, when a student leaves us, whether they’re going to a four-year college, a technical college, or going into the world of work, they’re going to have to do an online course,” she says. “This helps prepare the students.” More districts and a handful of states are starting to agree with this notion. They’re requiring students to get some form of online learning on their résumés before leaving high school."

10. Parents Urged Again to Limit TV for Youngest, by Benedict Carey - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/health/19babies.html?hpw - "Parents of infants and toddlers should limit the time their children spend in front of televisions, computers, self-described educational games and even grown-up shows playing in the background, the American Academy of Pediatrics warned on Tuesday. Video screen time provides no educational benefits for children under age 2 and leaves less room for activities that do, like interacting with other people and playing, the group said."

11. Out With Textbooks, in With Laptops for an Indiana School District, by Alan Schwarz - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/education/19textbooks.html?hpw - "Unlike the tentative, incremental steps of digital initiatives at many schools nationwide, Munster made an all-in leap in a few frenetic months — removing all math and science textbooks for its 2,600 students in grades 5 to 12, and providing a window into the hurdles and hiccups of such an overhaul. . . . Munster is hardly the first district to go digital. Schools in Mooresville, N.C., for example, started moving away from printed textbooks four years ago, and now 90 percent of their curriculum is online."

12. Will new NCLB law be less test-obsessed? by Monty Neill - The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/will-new-nclb-law-be-less-test-obsessed/2011/10/18/gIQAmIx5vL_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive - "Statewide tests will continue in grades 3-8 and once in high school in reading and math, and science once each in grades 3-5, 6-9 and 10-12. The bill would pave the way for multi-state consortium tests. Based on the consortium’s applications, the “new” exams will remain mostly multiple-choice and short answer, meaning they will trivialize teaching and learning just as current NCLB tests do."

13. Ravitch: Why ‘miracle schools’ aren’t really miracles - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/ravitch-why-miracle-schools-arent-really-miracles/2011/10/18/gIQAM62RuL_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_twitter via Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive - "The lesson in all this debunking is not that poor kids can't learn. Of course, they can. Let me say that again, slowly: Yes, poor kids can learn and excel. But whether or not children are poor, education is a slow, incremental process. While it is true that a student may have a remarkable change in attitude and motivation and demonstrate large test-score gains in a short period of time, it is rare indeed when an entire school or district experiences a dramatic increase in test scores. Any huge change in scores for a school or a district in a short period of time ought to provoke skepticism and a demand for evidence, not a willing suspension of disbelief."

14. Miracleschools site, by Gary Rubinstein and Noel Hammatt - http://miracleschools.wikispaces.com/ - "Informally, a 'miracle' school is one that is significantly outperforming the nearby schools in its neighborhood despite working with the same student populations and the same limited resources. More formally, we think that a true miracle school would have the following eight characteristics:"

15. Read The Joe Rottenborn Daily on http://paper.li/rottenbornj

143. MVCAP fyi

See free MVCAP e-books on college admissions and financial aid for sharing, printing, and downloading at our online resource library: http://issuu.com/mvcap

1. Student Protests Paralyze City Centers In Italy - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/30/italy-student-protests_n_789632.html#s194317

‎"They claim funding cuts means faculty positions are going unfilled. Similar protests snarled other cities, including Milan, Turin, Naples, Venice, Palermo and Bari. In Genoa, students protested under the slogan "they block our future, we block the cities."

2. 25 Colleges With the Worst Professors, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/fNtziyB

"The upper Midwest is a hot bed for bad professors, according to data an education think tank culled from millions of RateMyProfessor teacher evaluations. Among the top 25 schools with the worst professors, six of them hail from Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Nearly a third come from all parts of the Midwest."

3. 25 Colleges With the Best Professors, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/8ep9aYq

"What do the colleges on this list share in common? All of them are small private institutions. Most of the schools are liberal arts colleges with student bodies well under 4,000 students. And that’s not surprising since liberal arts colleges tend to offer smaller classes and the prime focus of professors at these schools is teaching not research."

4. Bill Gates Listens to the Wrong People, by Diane Ravitch - http://t.co/TWHufcK via @educationweek

"These are the people who teach our children, these are the members of the public who serve their local schools without compensation year after year. They and their children and their children's children will be here long after the corporate reform crowd has moved on and been forgotten. These are the people on whom our public schools depend. They care deeply about their children, their communities, and their public schools."

5. State Student-Aid Policies Drive College Prices, Researchers Say - http://chronicle.com/article/State-Student-Aid-Policies/125569/

"The researchers who conducted the study found that an increase in need-based aid resulted in higher tuition and fees at both public and private institutions in the state. Public colleges also lowered their average institutional-aid awards, while there was no change at private colleges."

6. Early college admission applicants: Have Plan B - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/college-admissions/early-college-admissions-appli.html

‎"The reality is that early decision good news or bad news will come, regardless of whether the student has a Plan B. But the bad news is a lot more difficult to deal with when there is no alternate plan."

7. Dropout Rates Dropping, but Don't Celebrate Yet, by Andrew J. Rotherham - http://bit.ly/gVhooK - reading from @time

"According to the report, by Johns Hopkins University, along with two education-oriented groups, America's Promise Alliance and Civic Enterprises, eight states had graduation rates below 70% in 2008, and 2.2 million students still attend dropout factories. An achievement gap also persists: only 64% of Hispanic students and 62% of African Americans graduated in 2008, while 81% of white students did."

8. Announcing the Release of the Best Colleges 2011 Rankings, by Greg Scott Neuman - http://t.co/lwfNRhQ

"According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual income of workers who hold a bachelor's degree is now almost $20,000 more than those who hold only a high school diploma. Over a 40-year working life, that’s a difference of more than $700,000 – quite a significant pay increase!"

• Follow the most important stories on college admissions and financial aid on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rottenbornj
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139. MVCAP fyi

See free MVCAP e-books on college admissions and financial aid for sharing, printing, and downloading at our online resource library: http://issuu.com/mvcap

1. Net-Price Calculator: The Latest Buzzword for College-Bound Families, by Jacques Steinberg - http://nyti.ms/dMK35D

‎"It is an online device called the “net price calculator,” and colleges and universities will be required by the federal government to have their own versions on their Web sites beginning late next year. The expectation is that families considering a particular institution will be able to enter basic information — household income, savings, mortgage, number of other family members in college — and a program will respond with estimated costs for that college."

2. For-Profit College Graduation Rate: 22 Percent - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/24/forprofit-college-graduat_n_787964.html

"The median debt of for-profit college graduates -- $31,190 -- far outpaces that of private non-profit college graduates, which stands at $17,040, and is more than triple the median debt for those from public colleges, which is $7,960. The University of Phoenix had one of the lower graduation rates at five percent, though the school said in a statement that when all of its students are accounted for -- not just those in federal data -- its graduation rate for bachelor's degree seekers rises to 36 percent."

3. International Students: 8 Things To Know About Attending American Colleges, by Lynn O'Shaughnessy - http://t.co/aqjj4SC

‎"If you want to study abroad in the United States some day, here are eight things that prospective international students need to know:"

4. School Demographics Can Add to Social Cost of Achievement, by Sarah D. Sparks - http://t.co/f1eSdef via @educationweek

‎"The authors found black and Native American adolescents each had significantly higher social costs associated with academic success than did white students, and the social cost was greatest for students who were part of a racial minority in a high-achieving school. Interestingly, this occurred whether or not white students or another racial group made up the majority of the students. "The main interpretation is these schools are likely to create a more competitive environment, and any competitive environment will increase tensions between groups," Fuller-Rowell said. Moreover, in a highly competitive school, "It's difficult to achieve highly without engaging in behaviors that are visible to peers" such as speaking out in class or participating in clubs, he said."

5. 12th Grade NAEP Scores Are Meaningless, by Diane Ravitch - http://t.co/jyZjs3X via @educationweek

"The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), which oversees NAEP, has known for years that 12th graders don't try to do well on the tests. The students know that the tests don't count, that there are no individual scores, that no one will ever know if they did well or poorly, and they are not motivated to do their best."

6. Harvard Revisits Policy on Early Admissions, by Eric Hoover http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/harvard-u-revisits-policy-on-early-admissions/27740

"William R. Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s dean of admissions and financial aid, told the Crimson that the university was reviewing the success of moving to a single application deadline in 2007. “We’re in the midst of a major study,” Mr. Fitzsimmons said. “At the moment, we don’t anticipate any changes, but we’re a dynamic institution.”

7. This Raging Fire, by Bob Herbert - http://nyti.ms/9Jjsc2

"We know by now, of course, that the situation is grave. We know that more than a third of black children live in poverty; that more than 70 percent are born to unwed mothers; that by the time they reach their mid-30s, a majority of black men without a high school diploma has spent time in prison. We know all this, but no one seems to know how to turn things around. No one has been able to stop this steady plunge of young black Americans into a socioeconomic abyss.
Now comes a report from the Council of the Great City Schools that ought to grab the attention of anyone who cares about black youngsters, starting with those parents who have shortchanged their children on a scale so monstrous that it is difficult to fully grasp. The report, titled “ Call for Change,” begins by saying that “the nation’s young black males are in a state of crisis” and describes their condition as “a national catastrophe.” It tells us that black males remain far behind their schoolmates in academic achievement and that they drop out of school at nearly twice the rate of whites. Black children — boys and girls — are three times more likely to live in single-parent households than white children and twice as likely to live in a home where no parent has full-time or year-round employment. In 2008, black males were imprisoned at a rate six-and-a-half times higher than white males."

• Follow the most important stories on college admissions and financial aid on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rottenbornj


• For links to articles on college admissions and financial aid, you can "friend" Joe Rottenborn at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=23325544


• "Like" the MVCAP fan page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=23325544#!/pages/Mahoning-Valley-College-Access-Program-MVCAP/284002915922


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